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“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road;make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” - Jim Elliot

Friday, February 1, 2013

Now, Don't Get Me Wrong... I Love Me Some Cotton Candy...

I
was startled by the statement. Is it really? Because I just thought I
was getting the hang of this whole blogging thing. And what will I do
if I don't blog? Hmmm.... actually... it might be a relief.

But for now... I blog.

I
have often asked, "O, Lord, please send someone else to do it." Send
someone else to write this or that post. Sometimes I feel inadequate.
Okay, lots of times. Or frustrated. Some posts I struggle to write...
some come easily. Some reveal my faults... and some posts seem a bit
braggadocios.

Blogging has been somewhat dangerous to me. A bit tempting. I found myself in words Alicia Britt Chole wrote in Anonymous...

"...I craved affirmation and longed to be spoken of in superlatives...

Through his Word and his people, he revealed how vulnerable it made me
to the power of others praise, my own prideful perfectionism, and a
whole host of other unpleasant spiritual ailments...

Man's praise is like cotton candy --sugar-laden and insubstantial... For my spiritual health, I had to make a change...

Once we have known an addiction to man's praise, shifting our diet from
finding value in man's acceptance to finding value in God's acceptance
does not happen in a matter of days. It is a process we revisit though
out our lifetimes. Thank God for hidden years! In those underestimated
seasons, when no one shows up to decorate us with praise, life is
finally bare enough for us to notice that God's adoring eyes have always
been upon us. We had his attention all along. We just could not see
it because we were too distracted by the sight of ourselves."

And
so, I have found that blogging has been good for my soul. Good for my
relationship with the Lord. Good for my desire to know God in a more
intimate way. Choosing to be obedient to Him... whether I want to or not... knowing that others may be reading... or not. But coming to a place where I am finding my significance in Him.

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and
then feeding you with manna,
which neither you nor your fathers had known,
to teach you that man does not live on bread alone
but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV